The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday directed the Bank of Baroda to suspend, with immediate effect, any further onboarding of their customers onto the “bob World” mobile application.
The central bank said in its notification that the action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the “manner of onboarding” of their customers onto this mobile application.
In its direction, the RBI said: “Any further onboarding of customers of the bank on the ‘bob World’ application will be subject to rectification of the deficiencies observed and strengthening of the related processes by the bank to the satisfaction of RBI.”
The RBI has exercised its power under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The Bank of Baroda has been further directed to ensure that already onboarded “bob World” customers do not face any disruption on account of this suspension.
In July, a report by Al Jazeera accused the bank of tampering with the accounts to boost registrations on its mobile app. The bank denied reports of tampering and said “consent-based process” was being followed.
In a statement, the Bank of Baroda said: “The bank reiterates that a full system authenticated, and customer consent-based process is currently being followed for undertaking any mobile banking app registrations in the bank. The bank has a current mobile banking activated user base of three crore customers, all of whom are linked to a unique mobile number seeded with their bank account.”